There was virtually no federal spending to counteract five major depressions or substantial unemployment in between. Unemployed people received almost no public or private assistance, and they were the target of nasty stereotypes. This chapter analyzes those who promoted negative views, including classical economists who claimed that unregulated markets tended to produce full employment, and charity organization leaders like Josephine Shaw Lowell who believed that poor people needed to be disciplined. The chapter also discusses defenders of the working class, including economist John Commons and reformer Jacob Coxey, who wanted public works for the unemployed. Over time more policy-makers gained a compassionate and scientific comprehension of unemployment, but federal policy in 1920 was not very different from what it had been in 1880.